Chilkat Weaver example essay topic

RAVENSTAIL WEAVING Ravenstail weaving predates the Chilkat weaving by about 400 years, and for almost 200 years there were no known weavers. We say no known weavers because no one went to all the remote villages and asked, "Do you weave, and did your Mother or Grandmother weave the Ravenstail?" The natural progression of weaving was from the Cedar bark and spruce root weaving into the Ravenstail then the Chilkat weaving. The basket and Ravenstail weaving was all in the hands of the woman; she had full control of the designs. When the Chilkat weaving came about the men became involved. A Master carver would carve or paint a pattern board the size of the robe; the pattern would only be on one half of the board and the weaver had to create a mirrored image on the other half of the weaving.

If the carver was a generous man he would create templates of the ovoids so the weaver could make sure her sizes were correct. The Ravenstail warp was originally from the Mountain Goat; since our hunting season is wrong for gathering their wool we now use merino sheep wool that is thigh spun. In the past 20 years people have tried to use spinning wheels and other spinning tools to spin the warp, but none of them spin what we need so we still do it the original way on a damp thigh. The traditional colors are white, black, and yellow. White was the natural color of the wool, black was from ash or iron ore, and the yellow was from wolf moss which grows on trees on the mainland. Ravenstail was rediscovered by accident by a Chilkat weaver named Cheryl Samuels.

She was in a museum researching the Chilkat weaving when she came across a box labeled Tsimshian yarn. She asked if she could look into the box and was left alone. When she opened the box it looked like a bunch of yarn but when she began moving the yarn she found it to be a woven robe. The robe was in very bad shape, but since she was a Chilkat weaver she knew she had found something special. This started her on a search of the known countries that had traded in Alaska to find any and all information on this form of weaving. In her travels she found 15 robes some were still whole but most were in pieces some pieces as small as a dime, some pieces where even in separate countries.

Cheryl then returned to Alaska and began reteaching the Alaskans the art of Ravenstail weaving. The 15 robes are now called the Mother robes to show respect to the original weavers, and the robes are now our teachers. Ravenstail weaving is done on an open loom, as is the Chilkat. The weaver is responsible to keep the tension proper along with the alignment.

Ravenstail is done over 2 or 4 warps at a time depending on the pattern she is working. All rows are worked one at a time tying off at the end of each row and inserting a fringe at the beginning of the row. All pattern areas are enclosed within a three strand twined box that ends with a braided tail, which is what the Ravenstail is named for. A Robe may take a year or more to weave and is sized for the person who has commissioned it. In the past 20 to 25 years the Weavers have grown from 0 to over 200. This is my best guess based on the number of classes and students.

Of course some students have woven only one item while others just keep on learning and making something new all the time.